Vancouver-born Vita Chambers finally finds her place

Nick Patch, The Canadian Press04.16.2013

Vita Chambers is shown during an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto on Thursday April 4, 2013. Chambers recently broke through with her single ìFix You,î a frantic, fluorescent electro-pop flash that finds the 19-year-old pleading that she can heal a broken lover.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Vita Chambers is shown during an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto on Thursday April 4, 2013. Chambers recently broke through with her single ìFix You,î a frantic, fluorescent electro-pop flash that finds the 19-year-old pleading that she can heal a broken lover.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Vita Chambers gestures during an interview with The Canadian Press in Toronto on Thursday April 4, 2013. Chambers recently broke through with her single ìFix You,î a frantic, fluorescent electro-pop flash that finds the 19-year-old pleading that she can heal a broken lover.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Vita Chambers recently broke through with her single Fix You, a frantic, fluorescent electro-pop flash that finds the 19-year-old pleading that she can heal a broken lover.

In a different context, Chambers has surely heard the song’s desperate lament — “if you let me, I can fix you” — many times before. Signed to a record deal on her 16th birthday, she’s spent the past three years trying on different musical looks, with no shortage of feedback from people who felt they knew best which direction to steer her career.

It was late last summer when Chambers — experiencing a “dark phase” that finally led to her move from New York to Toronto — decided she didn’t want to relent control of the wheel.

“I always had a strong vision of what I wanted, but I was very open to people telling me things,” she said in a recent interview from the head office of her Toronto-based record label.

“I still am, but it got to the point where I was being put down a road that I didn’t want to go. And people were so used to me being all ‘Oh sure, it’s all right, sure I’ll try that.’

“It’s funny to say, it took me almost three years to finally find myself as an artist ... stand up for what I want,” she added. “That happened quite recently, so I’m still fitting my way into those shoes. But I think I’m comfortable there.”

The early signs are, indeed, positive.

Fix You, Chambers’ first single in years, is steadily climbing the Billboard and iTunes charts and has already wrested her first Juno Award nomination, for dance recording of the year.

She had just returned from the gym when her mother gave her the good news so breathlessly that Chambers at first thought someone had died. Then, she “freaked out, screamed, my neighbours banged on the floor ... it was a full-on production.” She went to a movie and ate a hot dog to celebrate.

She describes a similar scene when reminiscing on being signed at 16. Though born in Vancouver, Chambers was whisked as a baby to Barbados and raised there until her music career, and New York beckoned when she signed that deal. Young as she was, she figured stardom was imminent.

“When I got signed, I thought: ‘This is it. My life’s made from here on,’ ” she recalled. “(But) it’s only just the beginning. And being honest with yourself — that was a battle that I had in the beginning. I had a lot of people (saying): ‘Oh, this is great, this is great!’ And I’m living in the Twilight Zone almost.”

It sure felt that way when, at 17 years old, Chambers was asked to open for Justin Bieber on his My World tour, which saw Chambers skipping across arena stages packed with fans suspended in a state of feverish frenzy over their impending brush with Bieber.

Meanwhile, Chambers frolicked backstage — a clip of the singer and a still mop-topped Bieber goofing around with a Segway in the dull halls of some arena is available online — and got a little used to the uncommon comforts of a pricey arena tour.

“Every night, it was 30,000 screaming kid girls,” recalled Chambers, who spoke glowingly of Bieber and his assorted staff. “It was incredible. And it was a really horrible tease. Because we were so excited when we first went on (the tour) — and then you had to get off. And it’s like, great, now I have to go do this on my own?”

Back then, Chambers’ singles Like Boom and Young Money were pure bubblegum barbed with adrenalized rock guitars. She’s about midway through work on her debut album now, and she says the electro pop of Fix You is a clear indication of her new direction. Rock is mostly in the past, though she suspects her debut record will reflect a diverse range of her influences: Imogen Heap, Florence Welch, Ellie Goulding and Kaskade.

A persistent point of reference for Chambers might be Rihanna, the similarly statuesque singer who was also raised in Barbados and also signed to SRP Records as a teenager. Chambers hasn’t exactly avoided the parallels — in late 2011, she and Taylor Bennett recorded a YouTube cover of Drake and Rihanna’s Take Care that has elicited nearly 300,000 views — but she says the comparison only goes so far.

“I don’t mind it — honestly, she’s an amazing artist,” she said. “I don’t think I’m like her, because we’re two different people, but it’s inevitable.”

Among the major differences? “My Bajan accent really didn’t rub off too much. When I say I’m from Barbados, people are like: ‘Really?’ ”

Though she’s still a teenager, Chambers has a beyond-her-years maturity, hard-earned over the rocky course of her first few years in the industry. If she wasn’t then, she’s grounded now. Though she dresses as if bound for a chic high-end nightclub on this day — a bright red blazer and a printed top with electric blue skinny jeans and gun-metal grey platform heels elevated as high as Denver — she and her friendly, unassuming parents relax at a nearby Tim Hortons as they await the interview.

When asked about their influence on her career, she first jokes that it’s financial — rubbing a couple fingers together as her elders laugh nearby — before getting serious.

“In this industry you have so many people wanting to mould you into what they think their vision is,” she said.

“So fighting — or not necessarily fighting, but standing for what you want all the time gets pretty exhausting. Having them there as my rock is really great.”

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